Silver emails

When Nancy Pelosi an­nounced she would try to hold on to the top
lead­er­ship spot among House Demo­crats des­pite their crush­ing losses in
the midterm elec­tions, Mi­chael Steele said, “My breath is taken away.” Her
deep un­pop­ular­ity would only help the op­pos­ing party. What Steele failed
to ac­know­ledge is that many Re­pub­lic­an lead­ers feel the same way about
him.

Bar­bour’s Com­plaints Are the ‘Tip of the
Ice­berg’Er­ick Er­ick­son at Red State
re­ports. “I’m told by sev­er­al people close to mul­tiple 2012 con­tenders
and also some present elec­ted of­fi­cials that Re­pub­lic­an com­mit­tee­men
began re­ceiv­ing phone calls at the end of last week mak­ing the case that
it is time for a change at the RNC.” A po­ten­tial pres­id­en­tial con­ender
emailed Er­ick­son, say­ing, “Who­ever the nom­in­ee is [in 2012] will con­trol
the RNC, but un­til that point someone needs to be there who every­one
has con­fid­ence in. That per­son is not there now.”

No Single
Strong Can­did­ate to Re­place Him, Chris Cil­lizza ex­plains at The Fix
that even Steele’s “most ar­dent op­pon­ents ac­know­ledge that he is held
in high­er re­gard by the 168 RNC mem­bers than he is by the gen­er­al GOP
polit­ic­al class. … Es­tim­ates of Steele’s strength with­in the com­mit­tee
vary but there is a gen­er­al con­sensus that he has between 50 to 60
sol­id votes. He would need 85 votes to win.” Po­ten­tial chal­lengers
in­clude “former Re­pub­lic­an Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee chair­man Mike Duncan, who
lost his bid for a second term to Steele in 2009, Con­necti­c­ut Re­pub­lic­an
Party Chair­man Chris Healy, Cali­for­nia com­mit­tee­man Ron Nehring,former
Nevada gov­ernor Robert List,” and per­haps former Min­nesota Sen. Norm
Cole­man.

Be­cause the Best Guy Has the Worst Name, the
Daily Caller’s Jon Ward re­ports. Ward talked to Katon
Dawson, who was Steele’s biggest chal­lenger in 2009 and who’s called for
Steele to be fired. Dawson said, “They’re not go­ing to co­alesce be­hind
one per­son be­cause that one per­son has not shown up yet. … That one
per­son has just got the wrong last name and it’s Bush. The one per­son is
Jeb Bush.”

Let’s Not For­get Tues­day’s Vic­tor­ies, BooMan urges at Booman Tribune. “I’m not say­ing that
Mi­chael Steele isn’t a clown and a gaffe-ma­chine, but he did just
preside over a huge elec­tion night vic­tory for the Re­pub­lic­an Party.
Sure, he had Cit­izen’s United and Amer­ic­an Cross­roads do­ing all the
heavy lift­ing, but can’t a broth­er catch a break? There were even two
Afric­an-Amer­ic­ans elec­ted to Con­gress as Re­pub­lic­ans in the Deep South.
Doesn’t that count for something?”

Secret Weapon: Sarah Pal­in,
Paul West re­ports at The Bal­it­more Sun.
Many RNC mem­bers think Pal­in will back Steele for a second term, giv­en
that Pal­in ap­peared with Steele dur­ing his “Fire Pelosi” bus tour, and
Steele de­fen­ded Pal­in from an­onym­ous Re­pub­lic­ans who said she shouldn’t
run for pres­id­ent. Pal­in would be a valu­able as­set, but if “Mama Grizzly
em­braces Steele as her kind of out­side-the-Belt­way, anti-es­tab­lish­ment
Re­pub­lic­an, the anti-Steele forces are likely to por­tray it as pay­back
for gen­er­ous fin­an­cial help Pal­in got from the RNC earli­er this year.
About $250,000 from the party treas­ury was used to pay her leg­al bills
dat­ing from the 2008 cam­paign. The story got re­l­at­ively little
at­ten­tion, but a Pal­in en­dorse­ment in the chair­man’s race could give it
wider cur­rency.”

President Obama has called for a "full review" of the hacking that took place during the 2016 election cycle, according to Obama counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco. Intelligence officials say it is highly likely that Russia was behind the hacking. The results are not necessarily going to be made public, but will be shared with members of Congress.

Source:

AT ISSUE: BENEFITS FOR COAL MINERS

Manchin, Brown Holding Up Spending Bill

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are threatening to block the spending bill—and prevent the Senate from leaving town—"because it would not extend benefits for retired coal miners for a year or pay for their pension plans. The current version of the bill would extend health benefits for four months. ... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday afternoon moved to end debate on the continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28. But unless Senate Democrats relent, that vote cannot be held until Saturday at 1 a.m. at the earliest, one hour after the current funding measure expires."

Source:

PARLIAMENT VOTED 234-56

South Korean President Impeached

3 hours ago

THE LATEST

The South Korean parliament voted on Friday morning to impeach President Park Geun-hye over charges of corruption, claiming she allowed undue influence to a close confidante of hers. Ms. Park is now suspended as president for 180 days. South Korea's Constitutional Court will hear the case and decide whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

Source:

CLOSED FOR INAUGURAL ACTIVITIES

NPS: Women’s March Can’t Use Lincoln Memorial

3 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Participants in the women's march on Washington the day after inauguration won't have access to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service has "filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters."